The Bears have already anointed quarterback Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback heading into the 2021 season. During his press conference last week, General Manager Ryan Pace touted Dalton as “one of the more complete quarterbacks that we evaluated this year in free agency.”
But Chicago may not be done at quarterback, as the draft is coming up at the end of the month. Pace and head coach Matt Nagy have been evaluating the incoming passers, and Dalton’s presence apparently will not prevent the Chicago from bringing in a potential long-term solution.
“It is more difficult [to evaluate these quarterbacks] because you just don’t have the luxury of being at the combine and seeing these guys throw and see the ball come out of their hands and their footwork,” Nagy said late last week, via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN. “You get to see every one of those guys from the top guy to the bottom guy. Right now you just don’t have the luxury of doing that.
“As everybody knows, we’ve been to a few pro days with some of these quarterbacks and it definitely helps, but there is only so many of those you can do and see. What’s fair is every other team is doing the same thing. Ryan [Pace] and I are super excited about going through that evaluation process together and how we do it. It’s a challenge, but we look forward to it. There are a lot of good quarterbacks in this draft class.”
The Bears have the 20th overall pick, so unless they trade up, they’re likely out of contention for one of the top prospects. But if one falls, Chicago will have at least done the due diligence necessary to feel comfortable capitalizing if an opportunity presents itself.